Recruits Terry, Harris have big performances

Grand Rapids Christian wide receiver Drake Harris and Erie (Pa.) Cathedral Prep quarterback Damion Terry have been among the top performers of Michigan State recruits so far this season.

Both players continued their strong seasons with big performances on Friday night.

Terry threw for a school-record five touchdowns in the first half and ran for another. He added a 43-yard touchdown run in the second half of Cathedral Prep’s 47-7 win over Youngstown Ursuline. He completed 21 of 28 passes for 310 yards as Cathedral Prep moved to 5-0. Delton Williams, an MSU target who was on campus with Terry for Saturday’s game against Ohio State, caught a 19-yard touchdown pass.

Harris, a 2014 verbal commit, had 10 catches for 211 yards and four touchdowns in a 49-35 win over state power East Grand Rapids. He had touchdown receptions of 21, 10, 60 and 8 yards.

Here is some info on some of the other recruits.

Shane Jones – The Cincinnati Moeller linebacker had seven tackles in a 37-22 win over LaSalle. He has 60 tackles, including 1 ½ sacks, an interceptions, a forced fumble and fumble recovery this season for Moeller.

Jay Harris – The Downingtown (Pa.) East receiver had two catches for 36 yards and a touchdown and 47 yards rushing and a touchdown in a 42-6 win over Avon Grove.

R.J. Shelton – The Beaver Dam (Wis.) tailback finished with 14 carries for 145 yards, including a 79-yard touchdown, in a 44-8 loss to Watertown. He also had three catches for 56 yards. The loss put an end to Beaver Dam’s playoff hopes.

Byron Bullough – Had a 27-yard touchdown run in Traverse City St. Francis 26-7 win over Charlevoix.

Dylan Chmura – The Waukesha West tight end had three catches for 50 yards in a 17-0 loss to Catholic Memorial.

Gerald Holmes – The Flint Carman-Ainsworth running back had a 37-yard touchdown run in a 50-0 win over Flint Northern.

MSU also announced that its Midnight Madness will take place on Friday, Oct. 12. Doors open at 9:30 p.m. and admission is free. The formal program begins at 10:30 p.m. with the men’s and women’s basketball teams being introduced.

23 Responses to Recruits Terry, Harris have big performances

We’ve all seen it. The middle-aged man telling stories of his glory days in high school when he was the kid that had it all. The girlfriend, the parties, and the entire community wanting to rub elbows with the prep-star of the town. And then it happened…he graduated, got a job, got older, got a little balder, gained a little weight and lost his feats of athletic-endeavors to scrapbooks and grainy video.

In some ways, the Big Ten is a lot like the guy still holding on to that letterman jacket, telling stories and pining for the good ‘ole days that seemed to have been lost in a collection of boxes that are covered in dust and spiderwebs in the basement storage. It’s nothing more than a memory, only to be conjured up when comparing rotten-apples to oranges.

It’s not a secret. The Big Ten has struggled in large part since Ohio State got T-boned out in the desert via the BCS Championship game in January of 2007. That night, the Buckeyes ran into a hungrier and more prepared Florida team that gave it a super-surprise toilet-swirlie in front of millions of viewers. That alone would be hard to come back from.

But it didn’t end there.

Since then, the conference has taken it on the chin more often than not. There have been some big wins sure. There was even a very good showing in the bowls in 2010. But a flash in the pan here or there does not equate to the steady and elite success of the six-straight BCS Championships of the SEC. The black eye of perception also doesn’t come close to the perception enjoyed by the offenses being thrown out by the Big Twelve and Pac-12 on a weekly basis.

And then there is the well-chronicled disaster of a year so far in this season. The Big Ten has parlayed the recent run of mediocrity to an even less than an average showing in the non-conference slate–losing arguably every single game in which it has had an opportunity to make a statement.

And that’s the ever-so-rough timeline of where things stands today.

So how does the Big Ten get its mojo back? How does it stop from being the punchline of many national jokes?

Easy. Well, kinda.

The single most important thing for the Big Ten to be among the upper crust of college football again, is to have its big-boys grow up to be grown-men again. That means we’re looking at you Michigan. We’re staring down our noses at you Ohio State. Nebraska, you’ll also be on the clock as the new cool kid who hasn’t quite fit in yet. But that might be more later than now as you settle in. Penn State? Well, that ship is sailing into the sunset for now.

Sure, having a solid league top to bottom might help to some extent, but it’s the blue-bloods of the sport that need to dominate and be a level above everyone else. Wisconsin, Michigan State and others still need to hold their own against tough out-of-conference competition, but the colors that will paint an improved image of the league are scarlet and gray, and maize and blue. There are other colors of the Big Ten rainbow, but those need to be the ones to pop with the brightest hue. As they once did.

After all, the SEC is tough, but it has two teams that are far superior to everyone else right now. It’s Alabama and LSU, then everyone else. The same needs to happen in the Midwest, and what two better teams to be entrusted with a renaissance than the two most responsible for bringing the program notoriety in the first place.

All indications point to Ohio State and Michigan getting back on the radar with top-flight recruiting classes, but both are clearly not there yet. Both simply have to produce on the field when it counts. Ohio State has a bowl ban so there won’t be an opportunity to take down a big-time opponent this year no matter how many games it wins. And Michigan has already tapped out with losses to Alabama and Notre Dame this season.

Better luck next year?

There’s no other way to slice it. The time is nigh for both widely-successful programs to ratchet things up in Ann Arbor and Columbus.

As they do, the national jokes, snickers, and sideways stares will stop. Until then, the reputation of the Big Ten will still be collecting dust, sitting in the corner as a memory of what once was.

Goose poop, by a LAME DUCK. They have names for people like you: chair warming shills. Get a job and pay your debts before you try to give an opinion that you clearly don’t have the intellectual acumen to give. People of your ilk ended their careers flying T39′s into mountains. So alas, poor Yorik, I knew thee well.

Ryder Cup 2012: Europe alone believed they could overcome America’s 10-6 lead at Medinah
They said they had “belief”, but nobody took it seriously. They claimed they had “momentum” from a Saturday evening flourish, but it looked like whistling past the graveyard. The source of all Ryder Cup drama, though, is pressure: entertainment’s cruel little brother.
Not so young Marine,
I had the chance to talk to Davis Love on Sunday. I told him that coming close and falling short was the American Way, and that he should be proud that his was the best team never to win the cup. He never said a word , just stared at me and walked away. This was the same reaction that I got from Coach Dantonio in Indy when I congratulated him on having the greatest team in Big Ten history never to win a championship. No one can come any closer that MSU did last year and not get it done.
In the same way Mark Dantonio and MSU could not have come any closer against the Buckeyes without winning the game. I have found in my experience it is not necessary to get the ACTUAL victory , if you achieve a moral victory. Coming close and falling short is the American way. So be proud of your team, I have a feeling that MSU will put up 31 points against Indiana and you will be the proud fan of a 4-2 football team on Saturday night.

I could have written this post for you, your belief in 2nd best is NOT the American way of MEN. It may be the american way of little sissy boys who sign up to play football at Vanderbilt, but to the rest of us: there are no points for 2nd place (in aerial combat or life). So you and your kissing cousin JLS just keep on smiling and distributing your drivel and I’ll keep knocking you down until you revert to form and cry uncle. Very, very disappointed in this attempt at levity. Thought you had grown.

Patience is always a virtue. We must do, instead of bemoan. 1 loss in the B1G doesn’t preclude our original goals. This years Acorn record will be expunged anyway. It’s like the other airplanes in a fur-ball (large aerial engagement), they were still flying and fighting even though they were clearly dead. The message just hadn’t reached their brains yet. The violations have already occurred in CMB, the NCAA just hasn’t found them, yet (which stands for You’re Eligible, Too).

There are old fighter pilots and there are bold fighter pilots, but there are NO old, bold fighter pilots. You might want to write that down.

To answer your question directly: you would have never gotten to my Squadron. Your approach to life would have been sussed out in preflight training and you would have been hurriedly shunted to P-3′s or C130′s where aggression and chutzpah are not required.

you can never tell the heart of man until it is required that he show heart. Sounds trivial, but it’s NOT. Playing golf on Thursday and Friday and even Saturday is a walk in park (a stroll ruined to quote Sam Clemons) compared to the back 9 on Sundays. Fighting with electronic missiles and surviving is for good fighter pilots, fighting with real missiles from other jets and the ground is for great fighter pilots. (google Randy Cunningham) In either case there is no way of telling the who will be able to conquer those 2nd parts. The only thing anyone can do in either case is to train as if it is Sunday afternoon or they are really shooting live rounds. All Coach Dantonio can do is to keep putting these kids in those positions and see how they respond. I didn’t know any FANG (last 2 letters stand for New Guy) with 50 hours in type that I would want to go to war with, 5 games in their first season is about that equivalent. I know more than a few with 120 hours that I’d let cover my 6.

Now wait a minute fellas, GoSt8go, Mgoblow, just what is wrong with being the second or third best team in the division. Cmon guys, I think finishing second or third is American Exceptionalism. Once in 93 a head coach got COY of the SEC mind you for going 5-6, now think about that fellas. If I was coaching Bennie Fowler I would tell the young man stop worrying about replacing BJ and Kmart, if you cant be a highway be a trail. If you cant be a mountain be a hill. You guys are tough on the old goat this week .

This year’s Spartan bunch still has a chance to do some great things. They’re gettin’ better from my vantage point. We lost a close one to a darn good team last weekend, it certainly isn’t the end of the world. Take it one game at a time, keep improving and by the meat of the schedule we’re gonna be on a roll. This squad is on the cusp of being solid in all areas; solidify the O-line, avoid any more injuries there and let the receiving corps come into it’s own over the next couple of games. Simple really.

I like what Dino has done. Give Burbridge the starting role, see what he can do. Bennie deserved the demotion with his play, but if he busts his ass and keeps a good attitude, maybe he can be an integral part of this team down the road.

And another thing. Ruhland jumped in and did a nice job last Saturday. With Treadwell back, he and Jack can alternate ’til Blake gets his sea legs again, and by the UM game this line should be a finely tuned machine. Bell will roll into Ann Arbor like Hickson did back in ’90 and steamroll the sonsabitches.

About this blog

Chris Solari@chrissolariChris Solari has been with LSJ Media since 2006 and has covered Spartan athletics since 1994 while attending MSU. He also was an award-winning writer while covering South Dakota State athletics from 2002-06.

Brian Calloway@brian_callowayBrian is a native of Coloma, Mich., and a 2005 graduate of Eastern Michigan. He has worked at the Lansing State Journal since October 2010.